


After the Gold

by DaughterOfApollo14



Category: Break the Fall - Jennifer Iacopelli
Genre: Audrey Lee-centric, F/F, POV Audrey Lee, Post-Tokyo Summer 2020 Olympics, Women's Artistic Gymnastics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-04
Updated: 2020-04-04
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:08:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23475187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaughterOfApollo14/pseuds/DaughterOfApollo14
Summary: Audrey Lee has achieved her dreams. She's won an Olympic gold medal. And now? What is she meant to do now that she can no longer do gymnastics?
Relationships: Chelsea Cameron/Audrey Lee
Kudos: 1





	After the Gold

It’s over. Finished. My dreams have come true. All of our dreams have. All four of us went home with a golden medal. But it’s strange, to actually be finished with it. Sure, like I told Chelsea during the actual games, it’s a relief. I’ve won Olympic gold and now I can rest. Give my body a break for once. But while my body is resting, my mind keeps spinning.

My mind has been spinning since I got back on American soil. What do you do when you’ve accomplished everything you’ve ever strived for? My whole life up until this point has been gymnastics and now that’s done. It’s been a weird summer.

I spent about two weeks in New York with my parents and Emma and Emma’s parents. A lot of that time was filled with more media appearances and photoshoots for brands who want to sponsor me. It was fun. A time to reconnect with my parents. But it was also a look into what could have been if my body wasn’t so broken. These will probably be the only sponsorship photoshoots I’ll ever do. Gymnastics is over for me. No more competitions. Ever. Emma’s schedule has been planned full. There’s media appearances and a bit of a vacation now, but after that, it’s right back to training.

After those two weeks in New York, we were all called to Los Angeles to testify. It was hard, emotionally. We spend the weeks leading up to the games and the games itself surrounded by what Gibby had done. But he had plead guilty, so the trial at least went fast. Coach Gibson went to jail and we could start trying to move on from the traumas he had caused.

All four of us decided to spend the rest of our vacation time with Chelsea in Los Angeles. We spend four weeks relaxing on the beach. Four weeks strengthening the unbreakable bonds that had been forged between us. And then both Dani and Emma left. Time for them to get back to training. To start the next four years of their lives.

Chelsea was working too. Appearances everywhere. Product launches for her make-up line. Chelsea Cameron was a Brand. A celebrity in her own right. She had already created a life outside of gymnastics for herself.

And then there was me. I had never done that. Never even let myself think about what would happen after the games. What I would do with the rest of my life.

“Have you decided yet?” Chelsea asked. We were both laying next to the pool by her house. It had been two weeks since Dani and Emma left and the answer to her question was still the same it had been since the day we boarded the plane home from Tokyo.

“No.”

Chelsea laid a comforting hand on my arm. “You’ll figure it out, Rey. You have options.”

And that was true. I did. I just couldn’t decide which to take. For so long my life had been without any real choices. I decided I wanted to be an Olympic gymnast when I was a little kid and that had been the last real decision I made for a really long time. After that, it was following what my coach told me I had to do to get there.

Tamara Jackson had offered me a spot at the USOF. I’d been considering going to Stanford. But both of those would mean giving up gymnastics in a way and that still felt impossible to me. The USOF was an Olympic foundation, so while I’m sure I could work with gymnastics through it, one sport would probably not be my sole focus. Gymnastics would never be my sole focus anymore. It was just difficult to actually accept that.

“Yeah, I know. Thanks, Chelsea. I just… Need some more time, I guess.”

“Well, then it’s a good thing we have all the time in the world now!” Chelsea exclaimed, “You still planning to visit Leo this weekend?”

I could feel myself grow a bit uncomfortable at the question. Leo, who had been my rock throughout everything. Without whom I don’t think I would have managed to do as well as I did during the games. Who I barely knew before we decided we wanted to be more than friends. Who was going back to training this weekend, to putting his all into winning Olympic gold.

“Yeah,” I finally answered, “Do you have any plans with Ben?”

Chelsea glanced away. She looked just as uncomfortable at my question as I had felt at hers. I wonder what’s going on there. If they’re still okay. Still as strong as they had always seemed to me.

“Yeah” Chelsea answered.

* * *

It was weird how at home I felt back in Coronado. I’d only been there for a few weeks this summer, but this place felt so much more like home than my gym in New York had ever felt. I felt safe here. I never realized before that I didn’t feel safe in my old gym. Janet Dorsey-Adams was back to training her usual gymnasts. The gym was full of life and joy.

I had spent the weekend here and today it was time for me to leave again. I had come up to Coronado to say goodbye to Leo. He was leaving to start training again. You couldn’t really train to be a snowboarder in south California after all.

It had been bitter sweet. We finally had that serious conversation that we kept saying we would have. But it didn’t have the ending either of us had predicted it would have. Instead, it had ended with us deciding neither of us were in the right place to start a serious relationship now. I was lost, drifting, trying to decide what to do with my life, and he had to be focused. He was just starting his comeback and there wasn’t that much time left before the Winter Olympics. He had to spend all his time and energy on his recovery if he wanted a chance at making it.

We realized we would have ended up broken if we tried to stay together now. So we decided to stay friends instead. And maybe, a few years from now, we could try again.

Leo has just left for the airport and I’m sitting here, in the stands of Janet Dorsey-Adams gym, watching her coach in a way I didn’t know was possible before she became my coach. How weird is that? That I never realized that the way Pauline had coached me and Emma wasn’t right. Wasn’t how you should coach people and encourage them. Janet had shown me that. She had shown me that you needed to not only care about a gymnast’s performance and physical health, but also their mental state.

“Audrey! You’re still here!” Janet walked up to me with a smile on her face.

“Yep! I’m planning on leaving soon though. I’ve been staying at Chelsea’s for a while.” That made the smile on Janet’s face grow even wider.

“That’s good! You two seemed very close during the games. So what has you sitting here all serious?”

“I was just thinking about how different your coaching is to what I was used to.” I paused for a bit, before continuing, “I know I gave you some crap for it at the beginning, but now I think it’s actually much better. I don’t think our team would have done nearly as well if you had decided not to coach us.”

“Thank you, Audrey. But you shouldn’t sell yourself short. You really stepped up as captain. You inspired the others. You pushed them to be the best they could be.”

Before I could thank her, someone called her name and she said: “I have to go back there, but feel free to stay as long as you want, okay? You’re always welcome here.” And then with a laugh, she added: “Even if you’re no longer dating my son.”

Then she turned around and walked away, leaving me alone with my thoughts once again. With a smile on my face, I stood up and walked away. It was time to go back to Chelsea’s.

* * *

When I got there, Chelsea was in tears. I immediately went up to her and hugged her.

“Hey, it’s okay, Chelsea, everything is going to be okay. What happened?”

Sobbing, she heaved out “We broke up. Ben and I broke up.”

Oh. So there had been something wrong there. I had that thought before leaving for Coronado, but I’d never actually considered that they might break up.

“It’s okay, I’ve got you, Chels.”

* * *

The next day, Chelsea seemed to have transformed. Gone was the sobbing girl from last night. In her place was the woman I had gotten to know. The woman who was strong and sure of herself and always there for everyone. The woman I’d looked up to all those weeks.

“It’s for the best, really.” She assured me, “We’d been growing apart for awhile. It’s better this way.”

She looked like she really believed that. I hoped it was true. I wanted her to be okay, to be happy.

“So, did your trip to Coronado give you all your answers? Did you decide to elope with Leo and follow him to the snow?” Chelsea asked, giggling.

I laughed and answered “No, I did not.” Then I sobered up a bit and added “Actually, we broke up too.”

“Oh, Rey..” Chelsea walked towards me to give me a hug.

“Don’t worry, it was mutual. We just both realized we would end up hating each other if we got together now, so we decided to stay friends.”

“Okay.” Chelsea said, still hugging me.

“You know, Coach Dorsey-Adams said something that made me think.”

At that, Chelsea finally let go of me and stepped away so she could look at me. She asked curiously: “Did she now?”

“Yeah. I’d been thinking of how different her coaching is from Pauline’s. And Janet said that I had helped you and Emma and Dani a lot during the games. That I had pushed you. Inspired you. And.. Well.. Do you think I could do that?”

“Do what, Audrey? Push us or inspire us? You did do that, Rey! After we lost the team’s, you’re the one who put us back in the right mindset to win all the individuals. And we did! The USA won gold on every individual!” Chelsea was smiling brightly and I couldn’t help but smile back.

“I know we did. It’s because we rock! But that’s not what I meant. I meant more, do you think I could be a good coach?”

At that, Chelsea’s smile softened. “I think you would make an amazing coach, Rey. Is that what you want to do?”

“Yes, I think so. I think it’s been so difficult for me to decide what to do, because I don’t want to let go of gymnastics. But if I did this, I would never have to. And I could help other girls, make sure nothing like what happened with Coach Gibson will ever happen again.”

Chelsea’s eyes were watering and I could feel mine getting wet too. “Then you should go back to coach Dorsey-Adams and ask her for advice. But first, we have to celebrate!”

* * *

We spend the entire night dancing and laughing and just having a blast. There was some drinking too. We probably shouldn’t have been drinking. Scratch that, we definitely shouldn’t have been drinking, since neither of us was 21. But we’d spend years not doing things we shouldn’t be doing. It was fun to let loose for once. And now we were laying on Chelsea’s porch, drunk, but having the time of our lives.

“God, you’re pretty” Chelsea said.

“Not nearly as pretty as you!” I replied.

Chelsea rolled her eyes. “No one can be as pretty as you, Rey. You’re golden!” That made both of us double over laughing.

“We’re both golden!” I shouted into the sky.

“Yeah, we are.” Chelsea agreed. She rolled over to look at me and I just now noticed how close we were. I could se her eyelashes and her eyes and her lips.

“Did you now coach Dorsey-Adams thinks we were really close during the games?” I whisper.

Chelsea giggles. “We were. But not as close as we are now.” And with that she scoots even closer to me.

“I think I might love you.” I continue to whisper. I’m starting to sober up. There was so much going on during the games, that I never stopped to think about it then, but it’s true. All through the games and the weeks before that, my eyes would keep going over to Chelsea. I kept looking to her for advice. To see how she was handling things. For support. I thought about Chelsea a lot. She made me smile a lot. And there’s a reason I’ve spend over two months at her house by now. A reason why I’m here, instead of at home with my parents in New York. It’s because I wanted to be near her.

Chelsea looks more serious now too. She whispers back: “I think I might love you too. That’s part of why Ben and I broke up.”

We were smiling at each other now. I couldn’t help myself. I closed the small gap between our faces and kissed her. Short and sweet.

Then I stood up and told her: “We should go to sleep now. We should see if we both still want this after we’ve sobered up.”

Chelsea smiled and stood up too. “I will.” She said, before walking into the house towards her bedroom.

“I will too.” I whispered into the night, before walking towards her guest room.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading this! I hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
